The 5 Best Airline Safety Videos

06.02.15

Hopping on a plane always seems to follow the same pattern; you’re excitedly waiting in your seat for the pilot to start the plane and your journey to begin. In the mean time, your anger builds at the passengers who are incompetently failing to stow their bags in the overhead lockers and find their seats without guidance from the crew. Once everyone has finally taken their seats, normally feeling like hours later, the steward or stewardess shows up and wants to tell you about the safety procedures. Well, now if you go far enough, you tend to be shown a video… usually with animated people who look disturbingly un-human. Although this is significantly better than a steward fidgeting around you and hitting you in the face as they show you how to fasten your seat belt, they still aren’t particularly interesting, and you tend to feel more bored than informed. Some airlines have, however, come up with entertaining alternatives, which are witty, funny and really interesting. Air New Zealand is one of my favourites and has come up with a really individual way to make your safety briefing genuinely watchable.

My Top 5 Safety Videos

As your Holidayguru, I’ve been in a lot of planes so far, so I am well aware of how mind-numbing these safety instructions can be.. I’ve gotten to the point of trying to fall asleep instead. Once in a while, there is, however, a safety video that really piques my interest. Some airlines put in heaps of effort when making these videos, and in the end you actually feel like you’ve been informed, but watched an entertaining video at the same time. I really enjoy this new innovative way of informing us about safety procedures.. so I’m going to share some of my favourite videos with you!

No 5: Alice & Co. Warm our Heart

This isn’t like the rest of the options I’m going to show you later.. the British airline Thomson Airways has chosen a very individual approach to give you their safety briefing. This video is one that warms your heart as you wait for the plane to start. The protagonist in the video is a little girl called Alice, she and her friends inform us about the safety measures aboard… it’s so cute that you really do struggle to look away! Definite cuteness overload!

No 4: The Beauty of Safety

When the famous magazine “Sports Illustrated” turned 50, Air New Zealand decided to celebrate its Birthday by creating their very own “swimsuit edition” of a video. This video shows you four beautiful women, not wearing many clothes, demonstrating the airline’s safety procedures. When the video was released, it caused a huge sugarstorm. Instead of “sexy” people thought of it as sexist. They even started an online petition to stop it being aired! The petition actually got 10,000 signatures… in the end the critics succeeded and the video was never shown again. Maybe the reason for this is because Air New Zealand replace their safety videos ever few months… Let’s see how you feel about this highly controversial safety video ;)

No 3: A Steward with a Huge Talent

South West Airlines are notorious for doing things a bit differently. They’ve decided never to shoot a single safety video yet still managed to make headlines with one. How you ask? Well, a very talented steward came up with a brilliant way of passing on safety instructions to his passengers: he demonstrated his rap skills! The passengers loved it. In the video you’ll see them clapping and stomping their feet to give him “a beat”… This is definitely how to make every passenger smile on their journey; even the business class ones ;).

No 2: Welcome to Middle Earth

Not quite the winner of my top five today, is another one from Air New Zealand. A few years ago, when the Hobbit trilogy was about to start, the airline decided to mix the fantasy world of the Hobbit with its safety instructions. The airline came up with a really great idea to incorporate a few of the characters into their video. Not only the pilot and the staff are in costume, but also some of the passengers seem to look strangely familiar… You might recognise characters like Suaron, Gollum, Legolas and lots of others in the video. Even Peter Jackson, director of the “Lords of the Rings” and “the Hobbit” steps in front of the camera for this! It’s a really cool way to learn about aeroplane security!

No 1: Aeroplane meets Musical

The reason I have chosen this video, is because I think it’s the most entertaining! When you first see the video you’ll begin to wonder if it’s actually a safety video at all, or whether it’s more of a music video. It’s actually both! This clip was created so that Virgin America could tell you about their safety instructions in a much more interesting way – in the style of a Broadway Musical. With great vocals, and even greater choreography, the “staff” in the video show you some tips on how to stay safe in an emergency situation. If you had a fear of flying, this video would definitely make you feel at ease. Sit back, relax and enjoy the “safety dance”.

So there you have it; my top 5 safety videos. I, personally, can’t wait for more airlines to release safety videos in this kind of style. It’s a trend that simply has to catch on, if the airline actually has any hope of anybody paying attention. If you fancy finding a few more of these I can really recommend Air New Zealand’s youtube channel.. they release a new video every few days, so that should keep you entertained for the foreseeable future.